Cabela’s nears all-time high stock price

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The price of Cabela’s stock is nearing an all-time high.

Trading Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange closed at $40.24 a share, up 46 percent from a year ago.

The all-time high price is $40.80, reached on April 25.

The outdoor outfitting company’s stock has been on a continuous rise since Nov. 21, 2008, when the price bottomed out at $4.75 per share. The company was founded in 1961 and went public in 2004. One of its retail stores is in Mitchell.

Cabela’s, which has corporate headquarters in Sidney, Neb., will report its second-quarter earnings July 26. The company has beaten analyst estimates in each of the last four quarters, according to financial analysis from Kapitall.

The company’s stores have downsized since the $4.75 stock price in 2008. Between the time of the Mitchell store opening in 2000 and the Rapid City store opening in 2008, Cabela’s built 20 stores of more than 100,000 square feet around the country. The company has built one store of that size since 2008 and is just now returning to a slightly more aggressive growth plan, with nine stores expected to open by the end of 2013.

Three new stores, expected to open next spring in Ohio, Michigan and Kentucky, will be between 80,000 and 88,000 square feet. Mitchell’s store is 84,000 square feet and Rapid City’s store is 80,000 square feet.

An analysis written by Zacks Equity Research credits the refined store approach for part of the growth, which includes “nextgeneration” stores and “Outpost” stores.

Next-generation stores still feature Cabela’s anchor pieces, including the Gun Library, Bargain Cave and Fudge Shop. The buildings are built with the log construction, stonework, wood siding and green metal roofing commonly found on the exterior of the stores.

Outpost stores allow the company to get into smaller markets — usually fewer than 250,000 people — that have a large concentration of customers through the company’s catalogs or online sales.

“We believe Cabela’s Outpost Stores will be perfectly suited to — and will be particularly successful in — the western United States and Canada,” said Cabela’s Chief Executive Officer Tommy Millner in a press release in February. “We have more Cabela’s Outpost Stores on the planning table, but we can’t reveal those locations just yet.”

The Outpost stores, which are smaller than the average store at around 40,000 square feet, have specific products year-round and rotating seasonal merchandise. The first store of that kind will open this fall in Union Gap, Wash.

Between both styles of stores, Cabela’s is expected to increase its overall store square footage by 11 to 13 percent by the end of the 2013 fiscal year. Cabela’s currently operates 37 retail stores.

The retailer has also put a focus on having customers purchase directly from retail stores or from the catalog with delivery to a local retail store to lower shipping costs, something Zacks says gives Cabela’s an advantage over competitors.

Calls to Cabela’s corporate office were not returned at press time.

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